God Bless Navigators

I remember the old family holidays. It was the year we bought our first car. I was in primary school. My father's driving was also new, so it was difficult to read the lable father ts and drive, in addition living in a Turkey.  A little not for the onew who doesn't know Turkey, orientation of lables are really bad to start with. There is no warning first of all. Just after coming to diversing roads you will see lable to turn. One a time my  father took a wrong turn and have to go 50 km afterall. Since then he hate the city İzmir. 

Turkish people like to visit their families and stay at home in their holidays. So we don't really know how to use map, and we have no idea about directions. When I was in my Erasmus term I was impressed about foreign frends navigating skills. I was so bad, that my boyfriend used me a compass. One day we were in the metro and he asked me which way out. I showed him the direction I think its right but after he told ok we are walking in the opposide direction, since your directioning is bad.(He was right!) One a time an Erasmus friend tried to teach me the using of a map and said ok now you are having map and showing us the direction but after going too far away from our target he took the control.

Enough talk about my directioning, now its time for my bad experiences of bad directioning. First of you should know about Turks. We like to help people a lot. So much that even thought we don't know we tried to help, so we answer your question about direction. I had had a rule about it. To being sure you should have ask at least 3 person the direction. Now I am saying you should have ask at least 5. One a time were supposed to go to Kadıköy(a discrit in İstanbul). We asked 3 people on the way for the bus going to Kadıköy. But after listening them and taking the bus for Kadıköy we had realised the bus is actually coming from Kadıköy and going to a very far place. In the middle of the night me and my sister found ourselves in a very very strange place andworse, the work shift of the buses were finished.

There are also some cities with weird directionings. Eskişehir is one of them. When ever I asked for the direction I never got a good answer. One time somebody told me:" Go directly, turn nowhere, then turn right!" Very clear ha?!

Another thing you should know about Turkey is we have strange direction skills. When you are asking for direction dont surprise when people talking about McDonals, Burker King, KFC. 

-Excuse me I want to go to this place. Can you tell me how?

- Of course. Go directly until you see McDonals on the right part of the road turn right on the second side road. Then you will see the place. 

Fight Hunger Feed Hungry

In the previous article I'd talked about donating rice by playin word games. After answering more than a hundred questions it start to being boring then I saw a link saying change subject. 

When I click the link I was impressed there were a lot of choices in the link. Currently I am learning Italian and French so immediately I clicked the French Link. I think the web site is great for learning French and other languages they offered. Questions are basic and and if you make a mistake, in the following second or third question its coming again so you are learning from your mistakes.

I had also tried Famous Paintings- I was terrible - and I did geography with my my mother. I think she loved the web site a lot. But should say finding countries on the map isnt really easy for Turks.(Turks known as bad direction skills, god bless navigators. Gonna Write  About Soon.)

Here is the link for the page. Answer more, donate more:

http://freerice.com/category

I want to also remind this link for ones who hadn't read the former article:

by taking mini quiz, which have only 5 questions you will be feeding a child for a day. It doesn't matter if your answers true or false.

http://www.wfp.org/get-involved?utm_source=freerice.com&utm_medium=front_page_link_under_ricebowl&utm_campaign=fr_get_involved

Down there you can see the copy of page for the subject you can choose to answer:

Subjects

HUMANITIES

• Famous Paintings
• Literature
• World Hunger
• Famous Quotes

ENGLISH

• English Vocabulary
• English Grammar

MATH

• Multiplication Table
• Basic Math (Pre-Algebra)

CHEMISTRY

• Chemical Symbols (Full List)
• Chemical Symbols (Basic)

LANGUAGE LEARNING

• German
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Latin

GEOGRAPHY

• World Landmarks
• Identify Countries on the Map
• World Capitals
• Flags of the world

SCIENCES

• Human Anatomy

TEST PREPARATION

• SAT®

Feed Hunger

When I was surfing on the internet, I found this link. There is a vocabulary game. You supposed the find the smilar meaning words in the given choices. For each right answer you will be donating 10 grains of rice. Its also good for your memory check.

After answering questions there is a option to help more there is a IQ test in the second link, it says IQ but its more like test of knowledge about hunger. There is only 5 questions. Do u know to feed somebody u only need 0.25$ for a day? If u donate 50$ u can feed somebody for an entire year!  If you can't donate, at least click the second link to feed somebody for a day.

http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1473

http://www.wfp.org/get-involved?utm_source=freerice.com&utm_medium=front_page_link_under_ricebowl&utm_campaign=fr_get_involved

Good Tea

In 2008, I went to Czech Repuplic, for Erasmus. I had stayed there 10 months, and it was the best part of my life so far. I am still remembering the old memories from that times.

In our Erasmus term there were 2 American students; Joanne and Ryan. I remember them with big smiles, and cheerful talk. One day Joanne invited us for tea, she had told they had find a teahouse, by chance. At first I had no idea what to expect, she had invited 20-30 people but we were only 8. Organising is a very difficult task, but we were happy to being a small group, afterall the teahouse was very small for big groups. After going I just fell in love with the place. The decor was very atractive, and calling. The man who serviced our tea was kind, and very knowledgeable. After bringing tea with exra hot water for next drink, he informed us about preparation for each tea, each tea has exact waiting time for preparation. We had ordered 4 type of tea: green, brown, white, blue. I was very insistent about Japanese tea, so friends accept my suggestion, I don't remember the exact name of the tea types we ordered.

There was a Latvian girl sitting next to me, and was saying : " The name looks like Witch"- as I remember name was smilar to Gama Iri Ganmachi; it was a mixture of Sencha and Macha tea. When the tea come she whispered to me : " It looks like a poison." I am still smiling with the memory back there. The tea was in a very lively green colour. If anybody has seen algea culture in a fish farm, would imagine the colour. I have to admit she was right about the apparance of tea. 

We decided to try every tea, there was a French friend, who was announcing the tastes after try. He was first to try, so we had some idea before trying. After trying he said the taste looks like fish. I should say taste was the least smilar thing to a fish. I found tea very good. The tea was taking all the stress on the body, and bringing you somewhere calm and peaceful. When we were taking metro I found myself smiling with the joy. I dont know if it was because of the tea or because of the atmosphere.

At the end of Erasmus I went there with a friend again, and we ordered the same tea. He found the tea amazing.

And down there you can see the links about the teahouse.

And here are some information I found about the place:

Dobrá čajovna ("Dobrá" Tea Room, Good Tearoom, Good T Room, Dobrá čajovňa etc.) is a tea house franchise originating in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic, but which has since opened in many other cities around the world includingBudapest (Hungary), Krakow (Poland), Bratislava (Slovakia), and Burlington, Vermont, Madison, Wisconsin, Portland, Maine, andAsheville, North Carolina in the United States. There are two Dobrá Čajovna in Prague. One on Václavské Náměstí (Wenceslas Square) and another between Karlovo Naměsti and Narodní Třida.

The original Dobrá Čajovna is the one situated on Wenceslas Square. During the Communist Era, importing tea was forbidden. However, a small group of tea lovers who would meet to sample and try different teas that were imported illegally. After the Velvet Revolution this group opened a tea room which is the same now one on Wenceslas Square. There is a Dobrá Čajovna in almost every major town in the Czech Republic. Pardubice,České Budějovice, Tábor, Chomutov, Český Těšín, Zlín, Ostrava, Kutná Hora, Olomouc, Brno, Český Krumlov, and others. Dobrá (meaning "good" in Czech) Čajovna specializes in serving fine loose-leaf teas brewed and served expertly in the manner of each tea's country of origin. The staff (known as Tea Devotees) are specially trained for all the varieties of tea they carry, and are very careful with water temperature and steeping time to try for the best possible cup.

There is a diverse selection of teas available, from Indian chai and Darjeeling to Chinese white tea, pu-erh and Japanese matcha, and even a full-leaf Earl Grey. Also served are pastries, couscous with fruit, spiced pita and other snacks to complement the beverages.

http://www.goodtearoom.com/
There is also a documentary film about Dobra Cayovna in the link above. After going to website click the video option:

"The Story of Dobrá Tea: Video"

http://tea.cz/cajovna/

http://tea.cz/spolek/